Best Tank Engineer - by theDuke

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r/Torchlight • 10 yr. ago

Posted by thedukey3

Alchemist

Best Tank Engineer - by theDukey

A friend of mine was asking me for some tank engineer ideas, and it was actually the first class I started in the game. I think this is a pretty solid build, please critique it and give feedback.

This build is based on being level 42+. Yes I've used respec potions and will continue to do so. Leveling into this build is a lot harder. After 42+ it gets a LOT easier. My advice is to use whatever kills the fastest up until that point, and respec into this if you want to try it.

Also note that this is based off a final min/max build, meaning yes I will use a respec potion in the future to get rid of skills that i dont think are necessary, but required now that theres no respec.

http://torchlight2armory.com/skill-calc?i=3#cmZ4l55LHWNJ0XLg4N-mWIoIzmz8mhWaTDO

At level 69 - able to solo level 105 maps fairly easy. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=98997991 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=98998029 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=98997943

Ending build explanation: (skills)

Blitz Skill Tree:

Emberquake: 15/15 points - Great skill that hits multiple mobs, as well as can do multiple hits on single target mobs and bosses. Works really well with shield bash, where you shield bash into large groups, and emberquake in the middle. KEEPING THIS UP AT LATER LEVELS REQUIRES A LOT OF MANA POTS!!!!! I cannot stress that last part enough :P Its rough, but to me worth it.

Onslaught: 15/15 points - Replacement for shield bash. Very accurate movement and amazing debuff. Onslaught into a group and emberquake them to death!

Ember Hammer: 1/15 points - Must have skill. Those annoying enemies later on with shields? One hit with this breaks them and makes for easy kills. Has a large hit area, and is an easy grab.

Construction Skill Tree:

Healing Bot: 15/15 points - the skill name says it all. The little bot follows you around, heals, and regens mana within a certain area. Excellent for group play. Also get a nice armor boost at tier 3.

Bulwark: 15/15 points - required for anyone going tank build. the skill adds armor and gives great damage reduction.

Fire and Spark: 15/15 points - adds fire damage which only buffs your emberquake. must have.

Charge Domination: 6/15 points - this is really just one of those moments where I don't know where to put my final few points. It makes it kind of annoying that the skill points don't even out. But this should give roughly a 5% chance when an enemy is killed to fully fill your charge up. Awesome if it works, but with this build you wont really notice when it doesnt.

Aegis Skill Tree:

Forcefield: 15/15 points - this skill will help keep you in god mode if you keep this up and have Aegis of Fate constantly going off. Also shields allies which helps the squishier classes.

Immobilization Copter: 5/15 points - this is an amazing skill. it follows you around slowing targets. With five points in this, this just helps with those champion mobs and bosses really. its great to have and i recommend nobody skip it.

Aegis of Fate: - 15/15 points - AMAZING skill. this plus forcefield are pretty much god mode. when you shield bash into 10+ enemies the chances of this going off at 15% are very high, and you will constantly see "absorbed" spammed on your screen from enemy hits.

Charge of Reconstitution: 15/15 points - heals anyone? the great thing about this is, if you get low, and cast forcefield, forcefield protects you from further damage, while this heals your missing life. this is why i love to have forcefield as the only charge skill. both work amazing together.

Common skill questions from comments:

Why not use Flame Hammer instead of Emberquake?

*When testing, I ran into a few issues. Let me make sure people know this is based on my play style, and what seemed to be more effective. Flame Hammer is a great skill, but when testing it I saw a few issues. Flame Hammer does a couple things I dont like. First off the way it hits the ground, and projectiles go searching for enemies. It doesnt track nearly as well as emberquake, and doesnt put off nearly as many splinters as emberquake does. Now Flame Hammer has a chance to do two additional blasts if it uses a charge. The issue with this is, the actual additional blasts get pushed out too far in front of you, and again just dont track enemies well. I don't see it hitting nearly as hard as emberquake, and another downside is it actually uses charges.

Why not use sword and board?

I simply see it as this. If I have a shield with 200 armor. Max sword and board gives you 90% of that armor to weapon DPS. So that adds 190 weapon DPS for 15 skill points of mine. That doesnt give me nearly enough. If you are going for max DPS over being able to survive, you will run into issues. Testing max DPS and seeing people spec'd into max DPS while in a normal difficulty game with a full party of six, they were dropping like flies. The game can get very hard, you want to survive.

Stats:

Honestly theres very little to say here. You will want to do your stats based on needed gear. you wont need higher level vitality for higher level armor until level 30+, at that point start to really invest in vitality with strength over 100. this build is very protected by forcefield and aegis even at lower levels.

I will say that you will possibly want to invest a little bit into focus for mana, maybe 50 points max. shield bash is very spammable and emberquake takes up a lot of mana. so if you dont constantly chugging mana pots, then take some focus a little later. thats of course if your current gear doesnt provide.

Gear:

You will be looking for +fire damage gear, and as high armor as you can get. your shield needs very high armor for shield bash damage. I'm still debating on whether or not a slow weapon for higher damage is better, or a faster weapon with lower damage is better. since shield bash is dependent on your weapon speed, ive always used a fast weapon to spam it as much as possible. maybe having both available is good.

One thing I noticed, is get weapons with the highest flat weapon dps. not elemental damage, highest absolute weapon dps. you will see drastic changes in your actual emberquake damage.

In general I look for armor that has a few main attributes. Highest armor value > life > fire dmg % > weapon dmg %.

Socketing the gems that give 3% Damage reduction in your armor can amount to an easy 30% extra DR, if not more, with just 10 armor sockets filled up. Will test when I find enough to have that much :P

Pet:

Please don't forget to utilize your pet. put him as straight DPS. when you get spell scrolls, your pet becomes a absolute monster with the right fish. honestly mine was doing more DPS than me up to level 40, and still does with the right fish. Adrenaline + haste + other scrolls = AMAZING. set to aggressive as well, not defensive.

After you start to do more DPS than your pet, you wont to set it up with spells that benefit you and the group. things such as heal all, barter, treasure hunter, etc. ( i believe treasure hunter spell works on pet? )

Update 1: added pet info.

Update 2: updated with new confirmed max skill points of 132. added new information on why this skill over that in regards to comment feedback. tested using respec potions in game @ level 55+ versus level 75+ maps, normal difficulty with max party. (which is very hard). Added screenshots of my current character sheet + skill panes

Update 3: Changing shield bash for onslaught. Shield bash seems to be bugged, and just turns out later is much harder to hit with, doesnt seem to apply attack speed debuff either? at least no debuff icon appears on mobs.

Update 4: Added new leveling info. TL;DR use respec potions at level 42 :)

Hope you like it, please let me know if you have any questions and feedback is greatly appreciated!

If you ever want to see the build in action, follow me on www.twitch.tv/thedukey3 , stream pretty often!

45 comments sorted by

SaddestCatEver

•

10 yr. ago

Great guide. Any insight as to Flame Hammer vs. Emberquake?

1 more reply

an_awny_mouse

•

10 yr. ago

My current engineer is running something similar. All points invested into Vitality so I went for all the abilities based off shield armor. Instead of Emberquake and Fire and Spark, I got Fire Bash and Onslaught for the mobility.

EDIT: Spelling

2 more replies

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